The general election took place in 30 parliamentary constituencies throughout the Irish Free State for 153 seats in the lower house of parliament, Dáil Éireann. The 1932 general election was one of the most important general elections held in Ireland in the 20th Century, resulting in the Free State's first change of government. Cumann na nGaedheal, which had been the governing party since 1922, was defeated by Fianna Fáil, which became the largest party in the chamber and formed a government with the support of the Labour Party. Fianna Fáil would be the largest party in Dáil Éireann at every general election until 2011.

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Cumann na nGaedheal fought the general election on its record of providing ten years of stable government. The party brought stability following the chaos of the Irish Civil War, and provided honest government. However, by 1932 this provision of solid government was wearing thin, particularly since the party had no solution to the collapse in trade which followed the depression of the early 1930s. Instead of offering new policies the party believed that its record in government would be enough to retain power. Cumann na nGaedheal also played the "red card" tactic, describing Fianna Fáil as communists and likening Éamon de Valera to Joseph Stalin.

In comparison to Cumann na nGaedheal, Fianna Fáil had an elaborate election programme, designed to appeal to a wide section of the electorate. It played down its republicanism to avoid alarm, but provided very popular social and economic policies. The party promised to free IRA prisoners, abolish the Oath of allegiance and reduce the powers of the Governor-General and the Senate. It also promised the introduction of protectionist policies, industrial development, self-sufficiency and improvements in housing and social security benefits.[1][2]

The election campaign between the two ideologically opposed parties was reasonably peaceful. However, during the campaign the government prosecuted de Valera's newly established newspaper, The Irish Press. The editor was also brought before a military tribunal. This was seen by many as a major blunder and a serious infringement on the belief of freedom of speech. The "red scare" tactics also seemed to backfire on the government, who seemed to have little else to offer the electorate.

When the results were known Fianna Fáil was still five seats short of an overall majority, but it still looked like the only party capable of forming a government. Discussions got underway immediately after the election and an agreement was reached in which the Labour Party would support Fianna Fáil. The party now had the necessary votes to form a minority government.

On 9 March 1932 the first change of government in the Irish Free State took place. Many in the country and abroad wondered if the true test of democracy would be passed, whether it would be possible for the men who won a civil war only ten years before to hand over power to their opponents. Similar to when the party first entered the Dáil in 1927, a number of Fianna Fáil TDs had guns in their pockets. However, the feared coup d'état did not take place. W. T. Cosgrave was determined to adhere to the principles of democracy that he had practised while in government. Likewise, the army, Garda Síochána and the civil service all accepted the change of government, despite the fact that they would now be taking orders from men who had been their enemies less than ten years previously. After a brief and uneventful meeting in the Dáil chamber, Éamon de Valera was appointed President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State by the Governor-General, James McNeill, who had come to Leinster House to make the appointment rather than require de Valera travel to the Viceregal Lodge, formerly a symbol of British rule. Fianna Fáil, a party led by many of the men most closely identified with opposing the existence of the state ten years earlier, were now the party of government. Not only that but the 1932 general election was the beginning of a sixteen-year period in government for Fianna Fáil.

1.
W. T. Cosgrave
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William Thomas W. T. Cosgrave was an Irish politician who succeeded Michael Collins as Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State from August to December 1922. He served as the first President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1932. Cosgrave never technically held the office of Taoiseach, however, as the first elected head of government in an independent Ireland, William Thomas Cosgrave, W. T. or Liam as he was generally known, was born at 174 Jamess Street, Dublin in 1880. He was educated at the Christian Brothers School at Malahide Road, Marino, Cosgrave first became politically active when he attended the first Sinn Féin convention in 1905. Cosgrave played a role in the Easter Rising of 1916 serving under Eamonn Ceannt as a Captain at the South Dublin Union. Following the rebellion Cosgrave was sentenced to death, however this was commuted to penal servitude for life and he was interned in Frongoch. While in prison Cosgrave won a seat for Sinn Féin in the Kilkenny City by-election of August 1917, in September 1917 he and Michael Collins addressed a crowd in Dunboyne, County Meath urging people to join the Irish Volunteers. He again won an Irish seat in the 1918 general election, on 24 June 1919 Cosgrave married Louisa Flanagan in Dublin. During his later years he was cared for by his son Liam, though one of the most politically experienced of Sinn Féins TDs, Cosgrave was not among the major leadership of the party. Another reason was his experience on Dublin Corporation, most recently as Chairman of its Finance Committee. His chief task as minister was the job of organising the non-cooperation of the people with the British authorities, Cosgrave was very successful in his role at the Department of Local Government. In 1920 he oversaw elections to local councils in which the new system of representation was used. Sinn Féin gained control of 28 of the 33 local councils and these councils then cut their links to the British, and pledged loyalty to the Sinn Féin Department of Local Government, under Cosgrave. Cosgrave broke with Éamon de Valera over the issue of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, to a majority, however, republican status remained for the moment an unattainable goal, with the republic unrecognised internationally. Dominion status offered, in the words of Michael Collins, the freedom to achieve freedom, after the Dáil voted by 64 to 57 to approve the Treaty, in January 1922, De Valera resigned the presidency. De Valera was replaced as president by Griffith, Collins, in accordance with the Treaty, formed a Provisional Government, this included Cosgrave amongst its membership. The months following the acceptance of the Treaty saw a progression to civil war. The split in Sinn Féin gradually deepened and the majority of the IRA hardened against accepting anything less than a full republic

2.
Leinster House
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Leinster House is the seat of the Oireachtas, the parliament of Ireland. Leinster House was originally the palace of the Dukes of Leinster. Since 1922, it is a complex of buildings, of which the ducal palace is the core. The most recognisable part of the complex, and the face of Leinster House. The societys famous Dublin Spring Show and Dublin Horse Show were held on its Leinster Lawn, facing Merrion Square. The building is the place of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann. Irelands parliament over the centuries had met in a number of locations, most notably in the Irish Houses of Parliament at College Green, next to Trinity College and its medieval parliament consisted of two Houses, a House of Commons and a House of Lords. Irelands senior peer, the Earl of Kildare, had a seat in the Lords, like all the aristocrats of the period, for the duration of the Social Season and parliamentary sessions, he and his family resided in state in a Dublin residence. From the late eighteenth century Leinster House was the Earls official Dublin residence, the building itself was designed by acclaimed architect Richard Cassels. In the history of aristocratic residences in Dublin, no other mansion matched Kildare House for its size or status. When the Earl was made the first Duke of Leinster in 1766, one famous member of the family who occasionally resided in Leinster House was Lord Edward FitzGerald, who became involved with Irish nationalism during the 1798 Rebellion, which cost him his life. With the passage of the Act of Union in 1800, Ireland ceased to have its own parliament, the 3rd Duke of Leinster sold Leinster House in 1815 to the Royal Dublin Society. In 1853 the Great Industrial Exhibition was hosted in its grounds, at the end of the nineteenth century, two new wings were added, to house the National Library of Ireland and the National Museum of Ireland. The Natural History Museum was built on the site, part of this scheme intended to re-clad the house in more attractive Portland stone and extend the portico outwards. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 provided for the creation of a self-governing Irish dominion, plans were made to turn Royal Hospital Kilmainham, an eighteenth-century former soldiers home in extensive parklands, into a full-time Parliament House. The building was bought outright from the RDS in 1924, a new Senate or Seanad chamber was created in the Dukes old ballroom, while wings from the neighbouring Royal College of Science were taken over as used as Government Buildings. The entire Royal College of Science, which by then had been merged with University College Dublin, was taken over in 1990. Both the National Library and National Museum wings next to Leinster House remain used by as a library, while plans were often made to provide a brand-new parliament house, the Oireachtas has remained permanently located in Leinster House

3.
Irish Civil War
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The civil war was waged between two opposing groups, Irish republicans and Irish nationalists, over the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The forces of the Provisional Government supported the Treaty, while the Republican opposition saw it as a betrayal of the Irish Republic, many of those who fought on both sides in the conflict had been members of the Irish Republican Army during the War of Independence. The Civil War was won by the Free State forces, which were armed with weapons provided by the British Government. The conflict may have claimed more lives than the War of Independence that preceded it, today, two of the main political parties in the Republic of Ireland, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, are direct descendants of the opposing sides of the war. The Anglo-Irish Treaty was agreed to end the 1919–1921 Irish War of Independence between the Irish Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the treaty provided for a self-governing Irish state, having its own army and police. The Treaty also allowed Northern Ireland to opt out of the new state, the British suggested this dominion in secret correspondence even before treaty negotiations began, but Sinn Féin leader Éamon de Valera rejected the dominion. The treaty also stipulated that members of the new Irish Oireachtas would have to take the following Oath of Allegiance I and this oath was highly objectionable to many Irish Republicans. Furthermore, the partition of Ireland, which had already decided by the Westminster parliament in the Government of Ireland Act 1920, was effectively confirmed in the Anglo-Irish treaty. All these issues were the cause of a split in the IRA, however, anti-treaty militants in 1922 believed that the treaty would never deliver full Irish independence. The split over the treaty was deeply personal, many of the leaders on both sides had been close friends and comrades during the War of Independence. This made their disagreement over the treaty all the more bitter and he said that he felt deeply betrayed when de Valera refused to stand by the agreement that the plenipotentiaries had negotiated with David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. De Valera, for his part, was furious that Collins, Dáil Éireann narrowly passed the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64 votes to 57 on 7 January 1922. Following the Treatys ratification, in accordance with article 17 of the Treaty and its authority under the Treaty was to provide a provisional arrangement for the administration of Southern Ireland during the interval before the establishment of the Irish Free State. In accordance with the Treaty, the British Government transferred the powers, before the British Government transferred such powers, the members of the Provisional Government each signified in writing acceptance of. Upon the Treatys ratification, de Valera resigned as President of the Republic and he challenged the right of the Dáil to approve the treaty, saying that its members were breaking their oath to the Irish Republic. De Valera continued to promote a compromise whereby the new Irish Free State would be in association with the British Commonwealth rather than be a member of it. In early March, he formed the Cumann na Poblachta party while remaining a member of Sinn Féin and commenced a speaking tour of the more republican province of Munster on 17 March 1922. In a letter to the Irish Independent on 23 March, de Valera accepted the accuracy of their report of his comment about wading through blood, but deplored that the newspaper had published it

4.
Great Depression
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The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place during the 1930s. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, in most countries it started in 1929 and it was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how far the economy can decline. The depression originated in the United States, after a fall in stock prices that began around September 4,1929. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide GDP fell by an estimated 15%, by comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s, however, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II. The Great Depression had devastating effects in both rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%, unemployment in the U. S. rose to 25% and in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries, farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by about 60%. Facing plummeting demand with few sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as mining and logging suffered the most. Even after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 optimism persisted for some time, john D. Rockefeller said These are days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come, prosperity has always returned and will again. The stock market turned upward in early 1930, returning to early 1929 levels by April and this was still almost 30% below the peak of September 1929. Together, government and business spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the period of the previous year. On the other hand, consumers, many of whom had suffered losses in the stock market the previous year. In addition, beginning in the mid-1930s, a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the U. S, by mid-1930, interest rates had dropped to low levels, but expected deflation and the continuing reluctance of people to borrow meant that consumer spending and investment were depressed. By May 1930, automobile sales had declined to below the levels of 1928, prices in general began to decline, although wages held steady in 1930

5.
Joseph Stalin
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Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. Holding the post of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he was effectively the dictator of the state. Stalin was one of the seven members of the first Politburo, founded in 1917 in order to manage the Bolshevik Revolution, alongside Lenin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky, Sokolnikov, and Bubnov. Among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who took part in the Russian Revolution of 1917 and he managed to consolidate power following the 1924 death of Vladimir Lenin by suppressing Lenins criticisms and expanding the functions of his role, all the while eliminating any opposition. He remained General Secretary until the post was abolished in 1952, the economic changes coincided with the imprisonment of millions of people in Gulag labour camps. The initial upheaval in agriculture disrupted food production and contributed to the catastrophic Soviet famine of 1932–33, major figures in the Communist Party and government, and many Red Army high commanders, were arrested and shot after being convicted of treason in show trials. Stalins invasion of Bukovina in 1940 violated the pact, as it went beyond the Soviet sphere of influence agreed with the Axis, Germany ended the pact when Hitler launched a massive invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Despite heavy human and territorial losses, Soviet forces managed to halt the Nazi incursion after the decisive Battles of Moscow, after defeating the Axis powers on the Eastern Front, the Red Army captured Berlin in May 1945, effectively ending the war in Europe for the Allies. The Soviet Union subsequently emerged as one of two recognized world superpowers, the other being the United States, Communist governments loyal to the Soviet Union were established in most countries freed from German occupation by the Red Army, which later constituted the Eastern Bloc. Stalin also had relations with Mao Zedong in China and Kim Il-sung in North Korea. On February 9,1946, Stalin delivered a public speech in which he explained the fundamental incompatibility of communism and capitalism. He stressed that the system needed war for raw materials. The Second World War was but the latest in a chain of conflicts which could be broken only when the economy made the transformation into communism. Stalin led the Soviet Union through its post-war reconstruction phase, which saw a significant rise in tension with the Western world that would later be known as the Cold War, Stalin remains a controversial figure today, with many regarding him as a tyrant. However, popular opinion within the Russian Federation is mixed, the exact number of deaths caused by Stalins regime is still a subject of debate, but it is widely agreed to be in the order of millions. Joseph Stalin was born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, the Russian-language version of his birth name is Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. Ioseb was born on 18 December 1878 in the town of Gori, Georgia and his father was Besarion Jughashvili, a cobbler, while his mother was Ekaterine Keke Geladze, a housemaid. As a child, Ioseb was plagued with health issues

6.
Irish Army
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The Irish Army, known simply as the Army, is the land component of the Defence Forces of Ireland. As of May 2016, approximately 7,300 men and women serve in the Irish Army, as well as maintaining its primary roles of defending the State and internal security within the State, since 1958 the Army has had a continuous presence in peacekeeping missions around the world. The Army also participates in the European Union Battlegroups, the Air Corps and Naval Service support the Army in carrying out its roles. The roles of the Army are, To defend the Irish state against armed aggression, to give aid to the civil power. This means that the Army assists, when requested, the Garda Síochána, to participate in multinational peace support, crisis management and humanitarian relief operations in support of the United Nations peacekeeping missions, and EUFOR. To carry out other duties which may be assigned to them time to time. For example, assistance on the occasion of natural disasters, assistance in connection with the maintenance of essential services, etc. The Defence Forces, including the Army, trace their origins to the Irish Republican Army, in February 1922, the Provisional Government began to recruit volunteers into the new National Army. The Provisional Government was set up on 16 January 1922 to assume power in the new Irish Free State. Both forces continued to use the Irish-language title Óglaigh na hÉireann, in July 1922, Dáil Éireann authorised raising a force of 35,000 men, by May 1923 this had grown to 58,000. The Irish Civil War broke out on 28 June 1922, the pro-Treaty Sinn Féin party had won an election on 16 June. In the early weeks of the Civil War, the newly formed National Army was mainly composed of pro-Treaty IRA units, especially the Dublin Guard and its size was estimated at about 7,000 men, in contrast to about 15,000 anti-Treaty IRA men. However, the Free State soon recruited far more troops, with the armys size mushrooming to 55,000 men and 3,500 officers by the end of the Civil War in May 1923. Many of its recruits were war-hardened Irishmen who had served in the British Army during the First World War, murphy, a second-in-command of the National Army in the civil war, had been a lieutenant colonel in the British Army, as had Emmet Dalton. Indeed, the Free State recruited experienced soldiers from wherever it could, the British government supplied the National Army with uniforms, small arms, ammunition, artillery and armoured units, which enabled it to bring the Civil War to a relatively speedy conclusion. Dublin was taken from anti-Treaty IRA units during the Battle of Dublin in July 1922, the anti-Treaty IRA were also dislodged from Limerick and Waterford in that month and Cork and County Kerry were secured in a decisive seaborne offensive in August. The remainder of the war was a Guerrilla War concentrated particularly in the south, the Anti-Treaty side were to be called Irregulars and were not to be referred to as Republicans, IRA, forces, or troops, nor were the ranks of their officers allowed to be given. National Army units, especially the Dublin Guard, were implicated in a series of atrocities against captured anti-Treaty fighters, the National Army suffered about 800 fatalities in the Civil War, including its commander-in-chief, Michael Collins

7.
James Larkin
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James Larkin was an Irish trade union leader and socialist activist, born to Irish parents in Liverpool, England. He and his family moved to a small cottage in Burren. Growing up in poverty, he received formal education and began working in a variety of jobs while still a child. He became a trade union organiser in 1905. Larkin moved to Belfast in 1907 and founded the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, the Irish Labour Party, perhaps best known for his role in the 1913 Dublin Lockout, Big Jim continues to occupy a significant place in Dublins collective memory. Larkin was born on 21 January 1876 the second eldest son of Irish emigrants, James Larkin and Mary Ann McNulty, the impoverished Larkin family lived in the slums of Liverpool during the early years of his life. From the age of seven, he attended school in the mornings and worked in the afternoons to supplement the family income, a common arrangement in working-class families at the time. At the age of fourteen, after the death of his father, he was apprenticed to the firm his father had worked for and he was unemployed for a time and then worked as a sailor and docker. By 1903, he was a foreman, and on 8 September of that year. From 1893, Larkin developed an interest in socialism and became a member of the Independent Labour Party, in 1905, he was one of the few foremen to take part in a strike on the Liverpool docks. He later gained a permanent position with the union, which, in 1906, sent him to Scotland, where he successfully organised workers in Preston and Glasgow. In January 1907, Larkin undertook his first task on behalf of the union movement in Ireland. He succeeded in unionising the workforce, and as employers refused to meet the wage demands, carters and coal men soon joined in, the latter settling their dispute after a month. Tensions regarding leadership arose between Larkin and NUDL general secretary James Sexton, the latters handling of negotiations and agreement to a disastrous settlement for the last of the strikers resulted in a lasting rift between Sexton and Larkin. In 1908, Larkin moved south and organised workers in Dublin, Cork and Waterford and his involvement, against union instructions, in a dispute in Dublin resulted in his expulsion from the NUDL. The union later prosecuted him for diverting funds to give strike pay to Cork workers engaged in an unofficial dispute. After trial and conviction for embezzlement in 1910, he was sentenced to prison for a year and this was widely regarded as unjust, and the Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Aberdeen, pardoned him after he had served three months in prison. Also in 1908, Arthur Griffith during the Dublin carter’s strike described Larkin as an Englishman importing foreign political disruption into this country, after his expulsion from the NUDL, Larkin founded the Irish Transport and General Workers Union at the end of December 1908

8.
Irish Free State
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The Irish Free State was an independent state established in 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. That treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between the forces of the self-proclaimed Irish Republic, the Irish Republican Army, and British Crown forces, the Free State was established as a Dominion of the British Commonwealth of Nations. It comprised 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland, Northern Ireland, which comprised the remaining six counties, exercised its right under the Treaty to opt out of the new state. W. T. Cosgrave, who had led both of these governments since August 1922, became the first President of the Executive Council, the legislature consisted of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann, also known as the Senate. Members of the Dáil were required to take an Oath of Allegiance, the oath was a key issue for opponents of the Treaty, who refused to take the oath and therefore did not take their seats. Pro-Treaty members, who formed Cumann na nGaedheal in 1923, held a majority in the Dáil from 1922 to 1927. In the first months of the Free State, the Irish Civil War was waged between the newly established National Army and the anti-Treaty IRA, who refused to recognise the state. The Civil War ended in victory for the government forces, with the anti-Treaty forces dumping its arms in May 1923, the anti-Treaty political party, Sinn Féin, refused to take its seats in the Dáil, leaving the relatively small Labour Party as the only opposition party. In 1926, when Sinn Féin president Éamon de Valera failed to have this policy reversed, he resigned from Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil entered the Dáil following the 1927 general election, and entered government after the Irish general election,1932, when it became the largest party. De Valera abolished the Oath of Allegiance and embarked on a war with Britain. In 1937 he drafted a new constitution, which was passed by a referendum in July of that year, the Free State came to an end with the coming into force of the new constitution on 29 December 1937. Under the new constitution the Irish state was named Ireland, meanwhile, opposition increased to Irelands participation in World War I in Europe and the Middle East. This came about when the Irish Parliamentary Party supported the Allied cause in World War I in response to the passing of the Third Home Rule Bill in 1914. Many people had begun to doubt whether the Bill, passed by Westminster in September 1914 but suspended for the duration of the war, Sinn Féin, the Irish Party and all other Nationalist elements joined forces in opposition to the idea during the Conscription Crisis of 1918. At the same time the Irish Parliamentary lost in support on account of the crisis, Irish republicans felt further emboldened by successful anti-monarchical revolutions in the Russian Empire, the German Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Sinn Féin party, founded by Arthur Griffith in 1905, had espoused non-violent separatism, under Éamon de Valeras leadership from 1917, it campaigned aggressively and militantly for an Irish republic. On 21 January 1919, Sinn Féin MPs, refusing to sit at Westminster, assembled in Dublin and it affirmed the formation of an Irish Republic and passed a Declaration of Independence, the irish people is resolved. To promote the common weal, to re-establish justice, with equal rights and equal opportunity for every citizen

The Irish Civil War (Irish: Cogadh Cathartha na hÉireann; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the …

Image: Secret Destination (6233259813)

National Army soldiers during the Civil War

The Four Courts along the River Liffey quayside. The building was occupied by anti-treaty forces during the Civil War, whom the National Army subsequently bombarded into surrender. The Irish national archives in the buildings were destroyed in the subsequent fire. The building was badly damaged but was fully restored after the war.